NBC Sports

First Impression

I downloaded this app about a month ago because I kept missing Sunday Night Football when I was out running errands or at my sister’s place. My first thought was that it looked pretty simple, which I liked. No crazy graphics or confusing menus. I tapped around, found where to put in my dad’s cable login (he lets me use it, don’t judge), and after a bit of back-and-forth with the provider website, I was in. Within a few minutes, I had a game streaming on my iPhone 14. The picture was clear and it didn’t buffer. I remember thinking, “Okay, this is exactly what I needed.” It felt like a straightforward solution to my problem.

What It Does Well

When this app works, it just works. That’s the best thing I can say about it. Last Thursday, I was waiting for my car’s oil change and was able to pull up a Premier League match without any fuss. The video loaded fast and stayed solid for the whole 20 minutes I was sitting there. I really like the “My Teams” thing. I picked my teams, and now the main screen shows me just their stuff—upcoming games, scores, and short highlight clips. It saves me from having to search every time. The notifications for when a game is about to start are actually useful. They’ve saved me from forgetting a couple times. For catching live sports quickly on my phone, it does the main job well.

Where It Falls Short

The big letdown is the reliability. It’s not always smooth. Two Sundays ago, I was trying to watch the fourth quarter of a really close NFL game. Right at a crucial drive, the stream suddenly got super pixelated and then froze for a good 30 seconds. I almost threw my phone. By the time it came back, the play was over. Stuff like that happens just enough to be annoying. Also, the whole “need a cable login” setup is a pain. If you don’t already pay for TV through one of their partners, this app is basically useless to you. Even with a login, the app sometimes forgets it and makes me sign in again, which is just a hassle.

Is It Worth the Price?

The app is free, so yeah, it’s worth downloading. But the real price is your cable subscription. If you already pay for one of the supported TV services, like I do through my family, then this app feels like a nice free extra. You’re already paying for the content, so being able to take it with you on your phone is great. If you’ve cut the cord, though, don’t bother. You won’t get any of the live games, just some short clips and articles. For me, it’s worth it because it solves my specific problem of watching games when I’m not home, but I’m not paying anything extra for the app itself.

Developer & Support

I had one issue where the app wouldn’t recognize my login no matter what I did. I used the help section in the app to send a message. They didn’t get back to me for a few days, which was longer than I hoped. I was worried I’d miss a game. But when they did reply, the person was actually helpful and walked me through a fix that worked. The app itself updates every so often. I don’t really notice huge changes, but it hasn’t gotten worse, so I guess that’s good. They seem to keep it running, which is all I ask.

Privacy & Safety

The app asks for pretty standard stuff. It wanted to send me notifications, which I allowed because I want the game alerts. It also needs access to my TV provider account to work, which makes sense. I didn’t see anything weird or scary in the privacy policy—it mostly talks about collecting data to personalize the “My Teams” stuff and for ads. I’m not super worried about it. It feels like any other big company’s sports app. I haven’t gotten any spam or weird emails since using it, so that’s a plus.